“We used to have a life there. And now it has been taken away from us”

These words from Ms Inna (name changed) capture the essence of all three stories we are sharing today. Inna is 70 years old. A few months ago, she was forced to leave her home in a small village near Synelnykove, where she had lived for many years and built her life around her household. Due to the constant danger, she had to seek a safer place to live in Kamianske.

She left behind almost everything she had earned through years of hard work, but she could not leave her beloved pets — cats and dogs who had become like family to her. This made finding accommodation in Kamianske even more difficult, as no one wanted to rent an apartment to a woman with pets.

“How could I have abandoned them? They are members of my family now. All my relatives are still there. It was so hard to leave, knowing that their graves were there too,” Ms Inna said, unable to hold back her tears.

Mr Ivan used to work as a tractor driver and general labourer in the agricultural sector when he lived in a small village near Donetsk. In 2022, he was forced to leave his home and move to Sloviansk, where, after some time, he managed to find work and rebuild his life. This was not easy, as he lives with a disability. In the summer of this year, he was forced to leave his familiar life for the second time and start all over again. However, his new city did not offer a particularly warm welcome.

“Finding accommodation is extremely difficult, and it is very hard to survive here on a pension and IDP payments. There are utility bills, food, medicine, and I also need to buy some things for the winter because I left with nothing. There is no chance of finding a job, even though I would really like to work so that I wouldn’t have to depend on these payments. But it is simply impossible here,” he says, his voice filled with sadness.

Ms Hanna (name changed) and her family had already fled their hometown of Kramatorsk once because of the threat posed by advancing Russian forces. Later, when the situation in the city became calmer, they returned to their home.

“But now it is impossible to live there. Things are flying overhead and exploding all around us. I told my daughter, who was pregnant at the time, to pack her things because we were leaving,” she recalls.

So Ms Hanna moved to Kamianske with her daughter and grandson, where her second grandchild was born. However, her son-in-law had to remain in Kramatorsk because his job was there, while finding work in the new city to support his family would be extremely difficult.

While his grandmother was speaking with our team, her four-year-old grandson was playing in our child-friendly space, building something with construction blocks.

“What are you building?”
“Kramatorsk. My dad helps shoot down drones there. And this is the train that brought us here, escaping from the drones.”

All three received cash assistance through a project supported by Irish Aid and Trócaire. They will use the assistance to pay rent and cover essential needs, including items they lack for everyday life, food and medicine. We are grateful to our partners, whose support helps Ukrainians hold on to their faith in kindness and the knowledge that they are not alone.